Leigh and Bransford Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils want to be at Leigh and Bransford. They attend regularly and work hard. Very few are persistently absent.

Leaders take appropriate steps to keep pupils safe, showing a clear understanding of potential risks and the support needed by some families.

Adults' aspirations for pupils are rightly high. Everyone experiences the full curriculum – no one misses out.

Pupils enjoy making use of the outside space as part of their learning. They appreciate the chance to bring the curriculum to life, such as through visits that complement their learning about influential historical figures.

In lessons and when moving around the school, pupils are polite and ...respectful.

Most behave thoughtfully towards each other and the adults who care for them. A few pupils are concerned by boisterous and unkind behaviour that sometimes happens at playtime. Reports of bullying are dealt with appropriately, although a small number of parents and carers feel this could be done better.

Pupils are prepared well for their secondary education. Nevertheless, leaders are clear about where learning could be even better. They are already taking action to improve the parts of the curriculum they have identified as needing further work.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Children get off to a positive start in the early years. Adults understand children's needs and plan successfully to meet them. There is a clear and helpful focus on children's personal, social and emotional development.

As a result, children settle quickly into the setting, learning how to care for their physical environment. They interact well with each other, demonstrating good manners and taking turns when playing together. Adults work closely with parents, helping them to be an integral part of their child's school experience.

The early years curriculum feeds deliberately into what pupils learn in subsequent years. Starting in Reception, children develop strong foundations in reading, writing and mathematics. Early reading is taught consistently well, with pupils encouraged to access a broad range of texts as they move through the school.

Consequently, pupils develop the reading fluency they need to be able to access the full curriculum.

Across the breadth of the curriculum, leaders and teachers have secure subject knowledge. This helps them to identify what pupils need to know and the order they need to learn it.

Thoughtful curriculum choices, such as the historical figures that pupils learn about, give pupils a useful context for their learning. In a small number of subjects, work to define and refine what pupils need to learn by the end of Year 6 is not yet fully developed and is being supported by useful expertise from beyond the school. Nevertheless, pupils demonstrate clearly developed knowledge across a range of subjects, which equips them well for their future.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive appropriate support. The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) is new to the school and is wasting no time in checking that provision is appropriate. Where necessary, there is an emerging sense of tenacity around seeking extra help from beyond the school for pupils who need it.

Pupils with SEND are accessing the full curriculum at a level appropriate to their needs. This is helping them to develop useful knowledge and to start to catch up with their peers.

Leaders have a clear focus on pupils' personal development.

They are alert to emerging societal risks, such as around harmful sexual behaviours, and how their work needs to help pupils to develop healthy relationships. The personal, social and health education programme shows a clear progression of learning around these and other relevant themes, such as physical and mental health. A small number of pupils do not always make good decisions regarding their social interactions.

This leads to some instances of overly boisterous behaviour on the playground. A minority of parents have concerns about bullying not being addressed well enough. Leaders know there is work to do here so that pupils consistently make the right choices when in charge of their own behaviour.

Pupils benefit from opportunities to be immersed in culture, through school trips and the texts they read in class. However, leaders do not look carefully enough at who attends the clubs on offer to be sure that everyone who wants to can participate.

Governors have improved the quality of their work in recent years, recognising the need for more rigour.

A recent restructuring of roles and responsibilities looks set to support their work further. They are suitably informed about the school's strengths and improvement priorities.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff receive suitable training that enables them to be alert to the warning signs that pupils may be at risk of harm. Adults report potential concerns in a timely way, making effective use of the school's new recording system. Consequently, leaders are able to act swiftly when concerns emerge about a child.

Governors understand their legal safeguarding duties. They make sure that adults in school are suitably vetted. Governors are in the process of updating safer recruitment training in light of recent changes to school and governor personnel so that they can maintain rigour in this aspect of their work.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The curriculum is not consistently well developed across the full range of subjects. Some elements of content choice and sequencing are not fully in place for a small number of subjects, including science and physical education. Leaders should ensure that their work to improve the curriculum leads swiftly to pupils receiving a consistently high quality of education across all of their subjects.

• Occasionally, at playtime, a small minority of pupils do not demonstrate the highest standards of behaviour that adults expect of them. As a result, this sometimes leads to overly boisterous play and unkind actions. Leaders should work to secure a culture where pupils behave with the same high level of respect during social time as they do during lessons.

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